Let's put a moratorium on all the nonsense about the warm-fuzzy love shared between Oregon and Cal, because behind the scenes the parties involved in Saturday's game are busy screaming for each other's spleens. The backbiting began when a Ducks assistant football coach wandered past a cubicle of a support-staff worker in the campus athletic department a few years ago in Eugene and saw a newspaper clipping featuring new Bears coach Jeff Tedford pinned to the bulletin board.
Tedford, a former Oregon assistant, was popular among athletic department support staff. Still, he was at California now, so orders were issued. The clipping came down. A year later, a defensive line recruit reported that Tedford, who wanted the player to commit to Cal, told him that Steve Greatwood, the current Ducks offensive line coach who was then coaching the defensive line, didn't know what he was doing.
Then, there was the J.J. Arrington recruiting debacle of 2003, in which Ducks assistant Gary Campbell wanted Arrington so badly he performed a personal rendition of the Riverdance on the NCAA rule book. And there's Remene Alston, a running back who announced last year he was leaning toward signing with Cal. He was then promptly contacted by Campbell, who Alston said hadn't shown any prior interest. Oregon landed Alston, who plays on the Ducks' scout team. Also, there is Cal wide receiver Robert Jordan, who was recruited by Oregon. This was a high-stakes transaction because Jordan was part of a group of Hayward (Calif.) High players (Jordan, Virdell Larkins and Phillip Mbakogu) who wanted to play on the same team as Marshawn Lynch. During his recruitment, Jordan visited with Ducks defensive coordinator Nick Alioti, who explained that Lynch wouldn't score high enough on his SAT exam to gain admission to Cal. Um, one little catch. Jordan is Lynch's cousin.
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